THAT THERE MAY BE A FAIRER SOCIETY IN GHANA - ONE IN WHICH ALL THE PEOPLE, NOT JUST A POWERFUL AND GREEDY FEW, BENEFIT FROM THE NATION'S WEALTH!

Saturday, 22 August 2015

Ghana's Politicians And Political Parties Are Failing Mother Ghana And Ordinary Ghanaians Terribly

Both President Mahama's National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime, and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo's opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), are failing ordinary Ghanaians, by not working together to get their parliamentarians to rush a bill through Parliament, which bans all public-sector employees from embarking on strike action, which denies the general public, the goods and services that public-sector entities provide the nation with.

If that is done, would it not stop public-sector employees from holding our nation to ransom, and making the lives of the very taxpayers whose taxes are used to pay them, such a complete misery?

Why should ordinary people die because public-sector medical doctors, who are relatively better off than most Ghanaians, want more pay and the value of sundry allowances given them increased? Do such preventable deaths not constitute crimes against humanity, I ask?

We must bring such abominations to an end in Ghana. Now, not tomorrow.

Is it also not the height of irresponsibility, for politicians and political parties in a highly-indebted developing nation that uses a huge chunk of its tax revenues to pay about 600,000 public-sector employees, to pretend that the state can continue increasing compensation packages of public-sector employees, without cutting down their numbers significantly - and demanding increased productivity levels from the remaining public-sector employees in return?

The question we must ask is: Why have both President Mahama and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo (and the leaders of the other political parties in our country) not been honest and bold enough, to tell public-sector medical doctors (and other public-sector professionals demanding more pay), that they must be reasonable - because they are better off than most ordinary Ghanaians (who struggle daily to survive), as it is: and that their demands for increased pay, simply cannot be met, any time soon?

Furthermore, most Ghanaian politicians are aware of the fact that medical doctors in Greece, for example, had as much as 40% slashed from their salaries in 2013, because of the need to cut Greece's public expenditure levels; and that junior doctors in Ireland too, had as much as €10,000 cut from their €60,000 annual salaries in 2014, because of the Irish government's efforts at rebalancing Ireland's public finances.

Has that painful but necessary policy of cuts in public spending not yielded results in both nations - enabling them to resume growing economically again? Should we not be following the example of nations that got themselves into massive debt, and cut public spending in order to resume economic growth and the creation of jobs by resurgent private businesses - such as Ireland, Iceland, Poland and the UK?

Instead of destroying private-sector businesses, by overburdening them with tax upon tax, is it not much more sensible to encourage growth in the economy, by sacking the legions of bribe-taking lazybones who work in government offices across Ghana; and that small army of parasitic square-pegs-in-round-holes at the presidency (starting with Stan Dogbe); and prevent greedy, arrogant and callous public-sector doctors-without-conscience, and other public-sector professionals, from bankrupting Ghana - by refusing to pay them the money they are demanding from taxpayers: at a time of severe economic difficulties for our country?

So why have members of our political class not asked Ghana's public-sector employees to face facts: and accept that Ghana is currently broke and struggling to stay afloat, and therefore simply cannot afford an increased public-sector wage bill?

Is this not a time in our history that demands that all Ghanaians make the much-needed sacrifices that will enable our country to begin growing significantly again? Is it therefore not curious that our nation's politicians and political parties are failing to tell Ghanaians that they ought to make the needed sacrifices if they want their country's GDP to grow again - and create jobs for young people in the process?

And worst of all, why, when both the NDC and NPP, are aware of the fact that they will have an opportunity to help clean the voters register, when it is exhibited publicly for that purpose, are they creating unnecessary tension amongst Ghanaians - by accusing each other of bloating the voters register: by their past rigging activities during the registration of voters in the Volta Region and the Ashanti Region to compile the register for the 2012 elections?

Whiles President Mahama and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo are doubtless both decent and honourable men, who will never do anything to intentionally harm our nation, it is obvious that small ruthless cabals exist within their parties, which wield tremendous power and influence, and are dedicated to scorched-earth politics - and thus are prepared to sabotage the nation-building effort whenever their parties are in the political wilderness.

The tragedy for our nation is that those ruthless politicians are prepared to see our nation destroyed if need be - if that will enable them either hold on to power or win it. Unspeakable - and such abominable callousness.

The Bernard Antwi-Boasiakos are classic examples of this breed of politician - and the fact that they are influential in the NPP speaks volumes. Verbally-aggressive individuals like that would never be allowed into any political party in the civilised world.

Ghanaians who can think for themselves, and are discerning enough, can see clearly the writing on the wall for the December 2016 elections, in the current jousting over the electoral process, between the NDC and NPP.

Clearly, whichever of the two parties loses the December 2016 presidential election, will resort to violence, on a scale never seen before, in our history.

However, Providence, will ensure, that they both fail to win the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2016 - so that Ghana continues to remain a peaceful and stable African nation.

The question is: To save Ghana from such a dreadful fate in December 2016, should the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), the People's National Convention (PNC), and the Progressive People's Party (PPP), not be dissolved now - by reversing into the Convention People's Party (CPP), and unite to fight the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections?

Nkrumahists of today ought to unite, to form a new Convention People's Party, to offer Ghanaians a chance to unite again as a people - and work together, irrespective of party affiliation, to transform Ghanaian society into an African equivalent, of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia.

Ghana definitely needs a new kind of politics, and a new breed of politician, if our nation is to become a meritocracy, in which only the best-qualified individuals are appointed to positions in the public-sector - whatever their political affiliation is and irresective of their ethnic heritage as Ghanaians.

It is instructive that spokespersons for the NPP - a political party unable to manage its own finances (being indebted to banks and unable and unwilling to repay those debts), but which wants to be given the opportunity to manage our nation's finances nonetheless - never once tell Ghanaians what alternative policies their party will use to resolve the economic difficulties that they criticise the current NDC government for. Talk about taking a whole nation for granted.

Yet, despite that deplorable failing, the NPP's leading lights still expect their party to be voted into power in the December 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections - no doubt for their government to spend its energies heaping the blame for the plight of ordinary people, on the NDC, when Ghanaians still continue to struggle to survive under an NPP regime too, after January 7th, 2017. And struggle they will - as sure as day follows night, if the NPP comes to power again, after December 2016.

Finally, those blinkered souls in Ghana, who continue to support the NDC and NPP blindly, must pause to ponder why those two parties, are so secretive about their sources of funding - and why their leading lights are so reluctant to publicly publish their assets, and those of their spouses, before assuming office, and immediately after leaving office. Food for thought, indeed.

Ghanaians must take note of the fact that Freddie Blay, a vice-chairperson of the NPP, has made it absolutely clear that publicly publishing the assets of NPP appointees, will never happen when the party comes to power again, after the December 2016 presidential election. Discerning Ghanaians should draw their own conclusions from his frankness on the subject - and revise their notes accordingly.

Clearly, the NPP is as beholden to the vested interests slowly destroying our country by corrupting politicians and public servants, as the NDC is - and will be equally corrupt when in power: regardless of what its leaders say to the contrary.